


party of one

by SolidStateScouter



Category: Touhou Project
Genre: Abusive Parents, Alternate Universe - High School, Dungeons and Dragons, Everyone is Trans, F/F, Gen, Misgendering, Multi, Other, Queerplatonic Relationships, Trans Female Character, Transmisogyny, Transphobia
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-02-01
Updated: 2015-02-12
Packaged: 2018-03-09 22:46:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3267185
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SolidStateScouter/pseuds/SolidStateScouter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Dungeons and Dragons is a game for satanists. Everyone who plays it is going to hell."</p>
<p>Your name is Marisa Kirisame, and you're willing to risk eternal damnation to spite your father.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. begin

"Hey, dad?" Your voice is quiet, but, in the silence of the dining room, your father hears it without difficulty. He just grunts in affirmation, not looking up from his own dinner. "What's Dungeons and Dragons?" Recently, you had heard and seen the name more often - from students around school, and in Kourin's old hobby shop. Last time you were there, you hadn't gotten the chance to take a look at any of the books, but you figured you might as well hear what your dad had to say about it.

He just grumbles to himself and scoops a forkful of food into his mouth. "It's a satanist's game. Everyone who plays it is gonna go straight to hell for what they've done." He sounds way angrier about it than you would have expected, and you just nod and don't talk after that, head swimming with ideas already.

You know where you're going tomorrow.

* * *

The next morning, you're awoken by the harsh blare of your stupid alarm clock. Grumbling to yourself, you manage to muster up the willpower to drag yourself out of bed to go turn it off. Another stupid day of school. You pull open the blinds to your room, wincing in the bright light of the rising sun. Time to get ready, you guess. 

The shower you take is uncomfortable, but blessedly quick, and it manages to wake you up. In front of the mirror, you run a hand through your still wet hair, dressed in new, clean clothes. It's a good thing that your dad goes to work so early - it lets you dress however you want without him being a shit about it. All that  __ son  _ _ and  __ young man  _ _ bullshit. You're not a boy, and you're definitely not his son. Your name is Marisa, and you're a girl - and if anything, you're his daughter, although you're not sure he deserves even that kind of acknowledgement. He doesn't really deserve anything, now that you think about it. Certainly not a daughter as great as you are. 

You tie your braid in silent irritation, and then survey yourself in the mirror. Looking pretty good, Marisa. Flicking the light off after you, you move into the kitchen and prepare a quick breakfast. Dad's already gone, thankfully, so you're left to your own devices for the morning. All that really includes is eating an admittedly sparse breakfast. You smooth out your school uniform - you had two, the original male one you had gotten, and the more suitable one for girls that Reimu had gotten you. After leaving your dishes on the counter - you  __ know  _ _ dad hates it when you do that - you walk out the front door, lunch forgotten. It's not like it matters, you'll probably be able to get enough food from Reimu or Alice anyways.

Speaking of... you abruptly remember the short conversation you had with your dad last night, over dinner - Dungeons and Dragons. A small smile finds its way onto your face. That's right. You have to go to Kourin's. Better take Reimu along with you too. Maybe Dungeons and Dragons is a multiplayer game? It'd be fun to play it with Reimu. Whatever it is. You guess you'll find out soon enough.

* * *

The Yakumo/Hakurei household is significantly larger than the small house you live in with your dad, on account of Reimu's rich, hotshot mother, Yukari. You're waiting by the driveway for Reimu, drumming your fingers against your arms when she exits her house, shouting something illegible back at one of her mothers. Probably Yukari. Reimu ends up standing right beside you, an irritated expression on her face. "Hey, Marisa." Ever since she got her braces a couple months ago, she's had a rather strong lisp, so she can't even say your name right anymore. It's kinda cute, really. Much to her own chagrin, your speech remained unharmed after you got your own braces.

You grin at her and clasp your hands together. "Reimu, wanna skip history and go to Kourin's?" 

Reimu just looks at you at disbelief and groans. "Marisa, Kamishirasawa's gonna kill us if we skip another class..." God, it's hilarious when she tries to say that, with her lisp and everything, and you can't stop yourself from snickering. She glares at you. "Also, Reisen's going to kill us too. Remember last time we skipped?" The memory was still fresh in your mind, as old as it is - Reisen's last attempt to stop the two of you from sneaking out had ended in her slipping on an orange you had thrown in her face just a second ago.

"Come on. That was hilarious, she fell flat on her face." She doesn't stop glaring at you, and you roll your eyes dramatically. "Come on, Reimu. There's some books there I wanna take a look at. It won't take long, promise!" She continues to glower at you suspiciously. You sigh in defeat and raise your hands. "Fine, fine. I'll go by myself. You can stay in history and fall asleep for all I care! It'll be boring without me there, that's for sure."

Reimu snorts in derision and shakes her head. "I'll finally be able to focus, without you flinging rubber bands at everyone."  

"You know you love me."

"Go fuck yourself, Marisa." You blow a raspberry at her, still grinning. She'll probably end up coming along with you anyways - she pretty much always does, after all. Anything beats sitting around, half-asleep, in history class. Even if it does mean risking being caught by another teacher or one of the hall monitors. At least that'd actually be interesting. History class is boring, and even if Kamishirasawa is a decent teacher, the course material is still dry.

Not long later, the two of you arrive at school and split up to go to your lockers and everything. Unfortunately, you hadn't managed to get your locker next to hers this year. Instead, you were wedged into a corner, next to some tall, pale girl with long purple hair who doesn't talk to you much. She's not here at the moment, which you expected - she's nearly always at the library, reading something or other and bickering with Remilia Scarlet, the rich girl that transferred to the school halfway through last year. They make an unlikely pair. Then again, it's not like you know either of them that well. For all you know, they could have so much in common. 

You shrug internally and walk to your first class.

* * *

The first class of your day passes by quickly. It's math, which is one thing you've always had a talent for. All the numbers and variables have always made sense to you, so it passes by quickly and easily. After finishing your own work, you entertain yourself by scribbling stars all over it. Once that's done, you go straight towards Reimu's locker and lean against the wall, waiting for her to arrive. When she does, she just glances at you and sighs in resignation, opening her locker. "What is it that you wanna look at so badly, anyways?"

"A Dungeons and Dragons book!" Reimu pauses and shoots you a weird look, which you disregard. "Dad said it was a game for satanists, so of course I'm gonna learn how to play it!" 

Reimu shakes her head slowly and puts on her jacket. "Do you have the money to buy the books?"

You wave your hand. "I have enough! Me and Kourin go way back, so I'll probably be able to get it off of him for cheap!" 

With a roll of her eyes, Reimu shuts her locker. "If you say so. Let's go, before the bell rings." You beam at her triumphantly.

"Thanks! You won't regret it, Reimu!"

"I better not."

* * *

When the two of you arrive at Kourin's hobby shop, it's as abandoned as ever. The only person in the shop is a bored looking Rinnosuke, leaning back in his chair and reading a manga or something. He looks up, surprised, when the door opens, but quickly loses interest when he realizes it's just you and Reimu again, and he doesn't say anything. You cross your arms with a disappointed huff and lean over on the counter. "Hey, Kourin! What's up?"

"Business as usual." He sighs and sets his book aside. "Shouldn't you two be in school? Let me guess, you're skipping again." As usual, he sounds rather bored and irritated. That's what happens when you run an unsuccessful business, you guess.

"Yup!" As usual, you're shameless. "I'm here to find books on Dungeons and Dragons!" You look around after finishing your exclamation, trying to find where you saw those books the other day. "Uh, where are they?"

Rinnosuke just stares at you for a moment before sighing. "They're over there." He gestures towards the back of the shop, and you nod, thanking him, before dragging Reimu away from whatever it was she was looking at. It doesn't take you long to find the books. They're pretty big - large, hardcover books. A Player's Handbook. A Dungeon Master's Guide. A Monster Manual. There's so many important looking books and you have no idea what any of them mean.

"Huh." You decide to take the Player's Handbook for now, and sit down on a chair and start flipping through it. It seems like the most obvious choice for a beginner. Reimu just glances at you and sighs before looking over the other ones.

"...Uh, Marisa?"

"Yeah?"

"These are like fifty dollars."

"Huh? Oh. That's more expensive than I thought," you admit after a second of hesitation. "I'm still buying it. I'm sure Kourin will give me a discount, after all! Being my long time friend!" You shout the last few words, making sure Rinnosuke hears you. You don't get a response, but, much to your surprise, the door clicks open. You look at Reimu, who looks just as surprised as you, and then stand up, looking out from behind the bookshelf.

A short girl with messy blue hair is standing in the doorway, wearing the uniform of your school. Remilia. She waves politely to Rinnosuke and then starts moving to the back of the shop, towards you and Reimu. For a second, you're afraid she's come here to apprehend the two of you and return you to school. Then again, last you checked, Remilia  __ also  _ _ skips a lot of school. When she sees you, she looks surprised for a moment, but then she smiles.

"Marisa! Didn't expect to see you here!" Her voice is quiet, composed and each word is carefully enunciated, as always. For someone who moved to Japan only a year ago, her pronunciation is fantastic. Her eyes move down from your face to the book in your hands, and her expression changes to interest. "You play Dungeons and Dragons?" 

"Uh, no. I was just looking at it! It seems interesting, so..." You trail off and flip through the book again, but Remilia's grinning now, a lot more genuine smile than the polite one she had given you only a few seconds ago.

"Really? Well, I'll have you know that me and Patche play it as well!" She says Patche like she's someone you should know, so you decide to just roll with it. It'd be embarrassing if you forgot someone's name again. "Would you two be interested in playing it with us? We're always on the lookout for more players!"

"Uh, Marisa - " Reimu starts talking in the short silence, but you're already standing up, mind whirring.

"Sure, we'd love to! Sounds fun. On one condition, though - " you hold out the book to Remilia. "You buy the books for us." Being rich and all, this shouldn't be much of a problem for her. You'd rather keep as much money as possible.

"Deal." Reimu groans, and you grin to yourself.

 


	2. gathering

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marisa and Reimu make their player characters, and Patchouli finds a dungeon master.

"Marisa, remind me why we're doing this, again?" Reimu's voice sounds bored and irritable from across her dining room table, an expression of tired resignation plastered on her face. 

You look up at her from the player's handbook, still scribbling down words and numbers on your character sheet. "Because! Isn't this more fun than wasting the day away at school? School's boring! This is fun." There's so many choices, but you've decided to make a human sorcerer. That sort of thing sounds really up your lane. "What's your character's name again?" 

"That's up for debate, but whatever." Reimu sighs and looks down at her own character sheet, a bit sparse in comparison to yours. "Renko Usami, human war cleric. I told you this already. Can I have the handbook back? I need to do fill in the rest of my sheet." You quickly scribble down the details of what you had chosen for your archetype - Wild Magic! It may give a lot of random effects and may cause your spells to blow up in your face, but you don't care. It's so cool. 

Reimu takes the handbook and flips back a few pages to wherever she had been and starts writing down her own things, while you review your own character.

She's a human sorcerer named Mima. You're still working on ironing out all the kinks of her backstory and everything - all you know for now is that she's lost her memory, and the only clue to her past is a knife she carries with her. It's probably a little cliche, but it's not like you've ever done anything like this before, so you think this is a pretty good start for now. Maybe you'll talk about backstory stuff with whoever is the dungeon master of the session later. And of course, she's a trans girl. That really goes without saying, you think. 

A few minutes pass in relative silence, the only sound being the scratching of Reimu's pencil, and you get bored with reading your writing over and over again. "Reimu, what's Renko's backstory?" Reimu looks up at you in surprise, and then looks back down at her paper awkwardly after a brief moment of silence.

"Uh... I don't really have one yet. She's just a war cleric who works at a shrine and gives people blessings. I dunno."  You huff and lean back in your chair, and Reimu scowls at you, crossing her arms. "Oh, like you have anything better. What's Mima's backstory then, huh?"

You grin in response and smooth out your character sheet, clearing your throat. "Mima has amnesia! She just woke up in the middle of nowhere with no memory or anything, just an old, rusty knife covered in blood that won't come off!" You just came up with that last part on the spur of the moment, but it sounds good, you think. Very ominous and mysterious and badass. Reimu just glares at you and sighs.

"Alright, that's actually pretty good. I... maybe we can link ours together or something?" She sounds almost embarrassed, and scratches the back of her neck. "I mean. What if Renko found Mima wherever she woke up? Maybe Mima wandered to her shrine?" She's moving her hands around vaguely, like she tends to do when talking. 

You nod excitedly, scenarios already forming in your head. "That sounds good!" Behind you, you can hear the door unlocking, and then swinging open, followed by the excited patter of small feet. 

Reimu's younger, adopted sister Chen runs into the dining room with a grin on her face. "Hi! What're you doing here so early?" Behind her, Ran Yakumo looks into the room and sighs.

"You skipped  _again?_ " She sounds more annoyed than surprised, and you wave at her, grinning. She just glances at you and nods in recognition before looking back at Reimu, scowling. "Hello, Marisa. Reimu - "

Reimu grumbles and stands up, slamming the Player's Handbook shut with an overly loud thump. "Marisa was the one who got me to skip! I would've stayed otherwise! It's not my fault. If you should be blaming anyone, it's her." Chen looks at Reimu and Ran and then just backs out of the room slowly, and then runs up the stairs, presumably to go to her room. Poor kid. At least she has actually decent parents, though.

Ran sighs and rubs the bridge of her nose, stepping further into the room and shooting a glare at you. "You still decided to skip to... play Dungeons and Dragons? Whatever, I don't care." Reimu opens her mouth, but Ran snaps before she can respond. "Shut it, young lady. Did you at least do your chores?" Reimu slumps in defeat and shakes her head slowly. "Do that, then. Marisa, you too. You're welcome to stay for dinner again, if you want to."

"Sure! Thanks, Ran!" She just nods and steps out of the dining room, going up the stairs to put her things away. 

"Thanks for defending me, Marisa." Reimu scowls at you and stands up to go get her broom. 

"Sorry!" You rehearse, evidently not sorry at all. "Gotta get in character! Mima's not one to stand up for others. She's kind of an asshole, actually!"

Reimu snorts from the kitchen. "Sounds like you're playing a self-insert."

"Says Miss Generic Shrine Maiden." You blow a raspberry at her.

"Shut up and clean." She throws the broom at you and you roll your eyes.

* * *

Dinner at the Yakumo household is always a fun time, especially in comparison to the lifeless suppers you always end up having with your dad. Chen is always talking and giggling. She has endless enthusiasm about everything. And she eats. She eats a  _lot._ How a small, 9-year old child eats that much, you'll never understand. Yukari hasn't arrived yet - she's often late, on account of the whole rich businesswoman thing, but when she is there, she's fun, if sarcastic and arrogant. You definitely see why Reimu argues with her so much, but. Yukari is really the type of mother you wish you had. She'd be better than your dad. Anyone would be better than your dad, honestly. 

Ran's a good cook, something that you never fail to remind her of. 

You wish you could stay here forever, but if you don't go back home soon dad's going to get worried. And when he gets worried, he gets angry. That's not something you really care to deal with. 

So you say your good byes and trudge back home, tugging at the straps of your backpack and reading over your character sheet excitedly. 

Just gotta keep dad from seeing this. 

That... wouldn't end well. 

* * *

"Remi." Patchouli's soft voice catches you by surprise, and you look over to her from your oversized desk.

"What is it, Patche?" You kick your feet. "I'm busy writing down ideas for the session with Hakurei and Kirisame! I need to get this PERFECT. It will be the best session ever." A proud grin makes its way onto your features. 

Patche frowns. "About that. I don't think you should be dungeon master." 

"What? Of course I should be dungeon master. I'm the one who organized this all and got everyone together!" You jump off your too-tall chair and glare up at your partner, grumbling to yourself. 

"Last time you hosted a session you killed the entire party in the first 30 minutes. Remember?" 

....You hate to admit it, but she's right. "It's not my fault they were underleveled!"

"It was our first session, and you can't really grind for levels in D&D, Remi."

"Sure you ca - " You lift up your hand to explain yourself, but Patche cuts you off with a glare. She's really perfected her angry glare lately. How unfair.

"Remi. You're not going to be the dungeon master. I don't want to lose another character to a swarm of vampires, and I'm not sure that would be a good first experience for Marisa and Reimu."

"...Fine!" You huff and turn back to your desk, ripping through the papers on your desk and throwing them into the air with an angry squeak. Patche is silent and you take a moment to regain your composure. "Whatever. Who do you suggest for the dungeon master, then? I assume you're uninterested?"

Patchouli nods and coughs into her sleeve a few times. After regaining her breath, she mutters "There's Alice Margatroid. She'd be good at something like this, and I've talked to her about it before. She said she'd do it." It takes you a moment to remember who Alice is, but it comes back to you quickly after that. The short girl who makes dolls and hangs out with Kirisame at lunch sometimes. 

You're still irritated (and more hurt than you're willing to admit) about the whole not being fit to be the dungeon master thing, but whatever. Throwing a tantrum about it wouldn't be a good idea, as tantalizing as the prospect is. All the attention you'd get... it'd be great, honestly. You glance at Patche and then nod after a second of hesitation. "Sure, whatever. Now I need to make a character sheet..." You groan and climb back onto your chair. 

"Hey." Patche tugs at your sleeve, and you look down at her, anxiety brewing in your gut for no discernible reason. "It's okay, Remi. Love you." She straightens up and leans forward to hug you, and you hug her back, a smile growing on your face as your anxiety fades away into contentment and joy.

"You're gay. I love you too."


End file.
